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Thursday, February 24th, 2011 18:39:32 GMT |
I've begun a new Journal section of my blog, so I can keep actual Site Update posts separate from posts where I just talk about my life, but have nothing of value to give to the world.
This is going to be a particularly poorly-written, hastily-written post because I'm a bit freaked out about my computer.
I'm just posting this to explain why I'm probably not going to be around much for a while (not that it will make much difference, considering how much I've been neglecting this site for years), and also to encourage donations, since oDesk has turned out to be a terrible way for me to make money. I've only made $30 so far.
And unfortunately, I think I'm going to have to get an entire new computer. I don't think I mentioned the following before, because I was a lot more freaked out about the little odd noises from my hard drive - but, for months, my computer's main fan has been making unusual noises at startup (though it quiets down after my computer has been on for a while).
It recently made some worse noises than usual (though on subsequent start-ups, it hasn't sounded as bad, so I don't know what's going on). It still works, but, this is very depressing, because I have no idea how to replace it, don't know anyone who could do it for me, and can't afford to pay someone else very much to do it. Though, I might be able to afford a replacement fan, if I could figure out precisely what to buy. But, I'd be afraid to even try to replace it - so, I'm not really looking to buy a new fan right now.
Another upsetting thing that happened was, today, Norton Internet Security (my firewall software) abruptly crashed with a weird glitch - which is something that never happened before. I'm afraid that might be another hint of my hard drive's impending doom.
Even once I get a new hard drive, I'm going to be reluctant to keep using my computer because of the CPU(?) fan.
My old Dell's 10 GB hard drive didn't die - but, something in my old Dell was making this horrible gluey, plasticky smell. I still don't know what it was for sure. But, I know it wasn't the hard drive, because when I temporarily moved it over to my Acer so I could copy the data, the smell didn't return.
I mostly avoided using my Acer from late May 2009 to mid-Dec. 2010 (when my Dell broke) because of my Acer hard drive's chronic problems with overheating and my inability to buy a replacement.
Well, I suppose if I had been willing to _only_ buy a replacement, and hadn't insisted on first getting some other hard drives and external enclosures so I could back up my data before I dared even try to replace the internal hard drive, I could have afforded that. But as it was, I was only able to afford some hard drives and enclosures to back up my data, but not a new hard drive to actually use inside my computer. (Well, at least not one with an adequate size. I do still have a couple 10 GB hard drives).
I didn't at all expect my Dell to suddenly die. (Well, technically, it didn't completely die - it never stopped working altogether, I just can't use it because of the possibly toxic fumes, and the fact that whatever went wrong in there will probably only get worse if I keep using it). I thought the worst thing that could happen was that my old 10 GB hard drive might die. :-( Which I had a 10 GB possible replacement for which probably works. So, for all that time, I didn't feel like it was urgent that I make enough money to get a new hard drive for my Acer, or whatever else I might need. That changed when I was forced to return to my Acer because of my Dell breaking.
I also have never figured out a really good way of making money online, or at least, haven't felt motivated/enthusiastic/inspired enough to do everything necessary to make those ways work, and have been too busy with more interesting (but unprofitable) things, like working on Astroblahhh Desktop.
I think probably Second Life and my website are the two most plausible ways for me to make money online (well, aside from horribly underpaid work on oDesk), but... since I need money very soon, and need a computer to do any of those things, none of those things seem like a very good option at the moment.
I actually tried booting my Acer from my Dell's 10 GB drive before wiping out the 10 GB drive, but unfortunately, it didn't work. I guess Windows XP doesn't let you boot from a hard drive that has been moved to a new computer.
I wish my Acer had come with an actual Windows XP installation CD instead of some kind of "recovery" CDs. Also, if I hadn't installed my Dell's copy of Windows XP on the computer of a relative (thinking, erroneously, I wouldn't need it anymore, after my Dell had broken)... then, I'd still have an easy way to reinstall Windows XP.
I guess I'll just make some final backups of anything on my Acer hard disk that isn't already backed up. Then, I'll disconnect my Acer hard disk (but leave it inside my computer).
I might not completely stop using my computer until it sounds like the CPU(?) fan is completely dead, but, I will probably use it much less frequently. It won't be totally useless without a hard drive because Puppy Linux (and other forms of Linux) can boot from a CD. Plus, I have a 1 GB flash drive. And, I finally figured out how to make the internet work in Linux.
It will be a huge pain not having all of my files available. I guess if I can figure out how to make TrueCrypt work in Linux, that problem will be eased somewhat, but, Linux seems really difficult to figure out. :-(
I don't know how I'm ever going to get $400 (or whatever) to get an entire new computer. :-( Just another depressing, difficult to solve problem on top of all of the other depressing, difficult to solve problems in my life. :-(
Anyhow, donations are welcome.
The only reason I've been using my newer (but still old) Acer computer (from 2006) lately is because in Dec. 2010, my even older computer (my Dell from 2002) finally became unuseable.
Anyhow, things have just been a mess. I am pretty much totally inept at making money. I have major sleep issues that make it very difficult for me to do a regular job (because I end up constantly sleep-deprived), and I'm also shy. In my entire life, I only had one regular job long-term, which was part-time, and even that was very difficult to endure, and I ended up quitting after about a year (despite the fact that I still badly needed the money).
If I could have figured out how to fit my 10 GB hard drive inside my Acer's case (instead of having to have it hanging out the side of my computer - which, amusingly, actually worked!), I might have actually switched over to using that as my primary hard drive. (I haven't wanted to take my Acer's hard drive out entirely because I figured it was safer inside my computer than anyplace else).
Anyhow, I don't know what to do next. I don't think there's a feasible, fast way for me to make money via my computer, and continuing to use my computer might only hasten its demise.
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| Puppy Linux variants; and Acer Aspire E360 service guide PDF |
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Friday, February 25th, 2011 04:53:28 GMT |
It occurred to me that it might be a good idea for me to post things to this blog even just for the sake of my own convenience, so I don't possibly lose track of important, useful links or other notes while I'm going through the tediously disruptive process of preparing to temporarily abandon my current hard drive.
Below, I've made some notes to myself bold, so they'll more easily catch my eye whenever I browse this again later. Italicized notes are notes which were previously bold that I no longer need.
Of those two, I'm only going to try Puppy Crypt 4.3, because I don't know how, in Windows, I would join together the 4 separate parts of Puppy Cielo Wary 5. Also, Wary seems to be a type of Puppy Linux which is intended for older hardware, according to Announcement and release notes for Wary Puppy 5.1.1, and I think my computer is quite capable of handling non-Wary Puppy Linuxes.
I didn't realize before that there are so many variants of Puppy Linux, but I'm pretty sure the variant I burned to a CD-RW several weeks ago wasn't a Wary Puppy, and it worked just fine.
I'm going to put each Puppy on a DVD-RW for each one. I wonder if they'll run faster or slower on a DVD-RW versus a CD-RW? Or maybe there will be no difference.
The table of contents of that guide is on pages 8 and 9 (as numbered by the PDF reader software; the printed page numbers differ).
Page 71 (PDF numbering) or page 62 (printed on the page) has a picture of the fan that I think I'm having trouble with.
Although it's slightly reassuring to have a whole guide about how to do things to the insides of my computer, the instructions seem scarily brief, and I still think I'm too nervous to actually attempt to replace the fan.
I'm not even sure the CPU Cooler part it talks about includes the fan, or if the fan just happens to be in that picture with the CPU Cooler. I guess it would make sense for the fan to be part of the CPU Cooler. But is that fan only a part of something bigger called the CPU Cooler, or, is the entire CPU Cooler in fact just that little fan? I guess sometime I should search the web for more details.
I guess the system fan is hidden in the metal box at the top, in the back, on the left side (or, in case that's ambiguous, the side of the computer case which can be removed). When I hold my hand behind that box, I feel a slight, weak, warm draft.
I hope that's not the fan with the problem - it looks like it would be more expensive to replace, and maybe more difficult to replace than the other fan. To try to figure out which fan has the problem, I should listen carefully next time I boot my computer after it has been off for a while. (After my computer has been on for a while, the fan doesn't make weird noises, even if I restart).
Anyhow, to my surprise, when I listened carefully, it sounded like the typical little rattly noises I always hear at start-up were coming from the lower right, near the hard drive. I'm not absolutely certain that's where the noise is from, but it really sounded like it.
Fortunately, that isn't as alarming as you might think, because sometime in the past year and a half, I had installed a hard drive cooling fan - which I soon regretted, because it seemed like it wasn't doing much (or really anything) to cool my hard drive, and I couldn't hear it, nor feel much of a breeze that I could definitely attribute to it rather than the CPU fan. So, I actually had thought that hard drive fan was probably just not working at all.
Soon after arriving at that possibly incorrect conclusion, I had tried to remove the "useless" fan, but then I found that it was stuck on my hard drive. I just couldn't unscrew it, and I was afraid to try very hard to remove it in case I might accidentally damage my hard drive. So, after a while, I gave up and just left it on there. I also had a hard time unplugging the fan's very poorly-made power plug (which was very wobbly, requiring you to hold the wires to it in exactly the right positions to even make it possible to plug in), so I just left that plugged in.
I'm not sure when it(?) first started making noises - maybe November 2010. I originally wondered if the noises were due to the fact that I always leave the side off of my computer while it's running to minimize how much my hard drive overheats. I thought maybe that allowed more dust, etc. to fly in, and I thought maybe some hair or something had gotten caught in the CPU fan.
But, since the noise only happened at start-up and went away after my computer had been on for a while, and it happened every single time I turned on my computer after it had been off for a while, I figured that probably wasn't the explanation.
I probably should have suspected it was that hard drive cooling fan earlier on, but I really thought the only working fan in there was the CPU fan, so I never bothered to listen to try to figure out more precisely where the rattling noise was coming from.
So, it's quite possible that I've been freaked out about something much more minor than I feared. Hope so.
I still don't know for sure what made the horrid low noise (like a fan which is struggling a lot) that happened either once or twice some days ago, but, it hasn't done that again - it's back to just rattling at start-up.
I still haven't disconnected my hard drive yet (in case I forgot to get something important from it). I've been using Puppy Crypt 4.3 Linux for about an hour and a half now (mostly without accessing anything on my hard drive), and I don't think I've heard those noises at all yet.
Happily, I found that there are some variants of Puppy Linux which actually have TrueCrypt installed in them already. Puppy Cielo Wary 5 and Puppy Crypt 4.3. So, maybe I won't lose access to a ton of my files after all.
I'm also going to try Lucid Puppy 5.2, released Jan. 5, 2011. That appeals to me because it's compatible with Ubuntu software packages, and Ubuntu seems to be one of the most popular varieties of Linux, so there are probably lots of packages available.
On the Acer website, I found a 164-page service guide PDF for my Acer Aspire E360: Aspire T160/E360 AcerPower M6 Service Guide I wish I had known about that years ago. I'm glad I finally stumbled across it.
I didn't even realize there was another fan built into my computer - the "system fan" of page 76 (PDF numbering) or page 67 (printed on the page).
Edit, 11:40 AM, 2/25/2011: Today, I listened carefully to my computer's fans at start-up. (And, at one point, I stupidly leaned too close to the computer, and for a few seconds, some of my hair got sucked into something - arrgh! Fortunately, my computer seems fine, and hopefully none of my hair got lost in the machine.)
Too bad the occasional odd noises (little squeaky noises and taps) of my hard drive itself probably can't also be blamed on the hard drive cooling fan. Those noises sometimes happen when my hard drive is very busy with something, but not at all when my hard drive is inactive.
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| Yay! Puppy Linux! |
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Sunday, February 27th, 2011 22:11:09 GMT |
As I explained in a lengthy addition to a previous post, my computer fan woes are probably not as serious as I thought. The rattly noises (and scary low noise several days ago) might only be a hard drive cooling fan that I installed a long time ago, which I mistakenly(?) thought was broken and doing nothing, and had tried but failed to remove.
I guess if I could get that hard drive cooling fan's power unplugged, I could know for sure whether or not that's the source of the rattling fan noises at start-up - but, I really, really hate doing anything to stuff inside my computer, so, I don't think I'm going to try that.
Today, I'm going to try BrunoPup 2.0 and NYP (Newyearspup02rc7), special Eclipse edition for Java developers.
Not a very severe test, though. Thanks to the web, it's more like a camping trip where you could call up Survivorman on a cell phone for free advice about any little thing at all, 24/7.
Like a camping trip, I was expecting to have to rough it in the wilderness and do without a ton of things. But instead, what happened was like finding my little tent can magically set itself up mostly automatically, and is pre-equipped with things that make it even more luxurious than home in some ways. And somehow, this tent has room service, and a menu full of additional goodies that can be delivered and installed effortlessly by a magical butler who can teleport. (Just a silly analogy for the convenient software package manager. :-) )
And a lot more luxuries can fit in than I ever would have thought could fit in a little tent. Though, sometimes the tent has to magically rearrange its contents and set itself up again to make the stuff I add to it fit better. (Or in other words, I have to save my session and restart my computer when I run out of RAM, to replenish the RAM. RAM space returns as if by magic after restart, even if I added a bunch of new programs).
So, it hasn't been nearly as cramped and uncomfortable as I thought it would be.
It's still a tent, though (at least the way I have it set up) - not a luxury hotel room, and not quite like home. It definitely is missing some of the comforts of home (at least for now). But perhaps with enough rearranging, it will be just as good as home or even better.
I also love how Puppy runs in RAM and doesn't even require a hard drive. In Windows XP, it always drove me crazy that even when I wasn't doing anything on my computer, frequently something or other was being done to the hard drive.
I also feel like, in Puppy Linux, I can get away with being less paranoid about viruses, etc. while I'm browsing the web. I will probably still install NoScript in Firefox, anyway, though, just because blocking scripts makes some pages load faster.
By the way, I am definitely not a Windows XP hater. It's probably the most stable OS of any I've ever used. I'm actually pretty fond of it. If only it were open source and free.
I only found one Puppy so far which has XAMPP pre-installed in it - NYP (Newyearspup02rc7), special Eclipse edition for Java developers. Both that and
BrunoPup 2.0 have Java, which I want so I can use the concept-mapping software VUE and the mind-mapping software Freeplane in Puppy.
I want XAMPP so I can run Astroblahhh Desktop, the Astrosorting Music Organization Database (AMODB), and anything else I might write (or want to use) that can run in XAMPP.
It was thrilling to find that I could use my favorite plain text editor, NoteTab Light, in Linux. Unfortunately, though, there's a horrible flicker that happens every few seconds as I type, so, I'm going to try some native Linux text editors.
I'm most interested in trying the renowned Emacs, despite the fact that every time I ever tried it in the past, I found it very confusing. But, given Emacs' reputation for being very powerful and scriptable, perhaps that will make Emacs an adequate substitute for NoteTab with its clip programming - if I can figure Emacs out.
Notepad++, my favorite code editor, worked OK (though not perfectly) and was flicker-free, so, I've been using that as my main text editor in Linux. I was surprised there wasn't a native Linux version of Notepad++. The only bad problem I had with it was when the window got frozen when an alert about a document being modified by some other program came up. I had to forcibly close the program, and once lost a small amount of unsaved data as a result.
Of course, it was only partly functional, but I was amazed it worked as well as it did. Puppy Studio 3.3 actually displayed that script's icon in the taskbar at the top of the screen, the script's taskbar menu displayed properly, and some of the menu items worked. Double-clicking the taskbar icon to make a certain scripted behavior happen also worked properly. The AHK script wasn't capable of constantly monitoring the clipboard for updates as it could in Windows, but, it was capable of creating a text file and adding data to it.
So, wow! It's possible to make AHK programs in Windows that are actually useful in Linux! They would definitely be missing a lot of the capabilities of AHK in Windows - but, still, how cool. :-)
With two different Puppies, I initially had the problem of everything on screen being stretched too wide, and some stuff on the right side was partly off-screen.
I was able to fix that by going through the Xorg Wizard (the thing you use to set your screen resolution, graphics driver, etc.) again. You can get there by pressing Ctrl-Alt-Backspace (which will immediately close the Windows-like desktop, and any programs you were running, and put you at a command prompt) and typing "xorgwizard". Choosing "vesa" on the first screen fixed my problem (or going to "Choose" and then picking "nvidia" after I downloaded an nVidia graphics card driver). After going through the Xorg Wizard, type "xwin" at the command prompt to get your Windows-like desktop back.
With all three Puppies I tried so far - sometimes, when first starting Puppy or after going through the Xorg Wizard (to set your screen resolution, graphics driver, etc.), the mouse cursor disappeared, which made it very hard to do anything. Going through the Xorg Wizard again (as described above) helped with that problem as well. When I selected "Probe" in the Xorg Wizard, things tended not to go well, if I recall correctly.
When I tried to install Java in Lucid Puppy 5.2 using the file at http://puppylinux.org/wikka/JavaRuntimeEnvironment and either the BootManager or SFS-Load (can't remember which), Lucid Puppy 5.2 ran out of RAM at start-up and stopped booting. I guess I'll just have to press F2 when I first boot up, and skip the last saved session, to fix that. I'll probably have to figure out how to delete that last session.
(Edit, 2/28/2011, 5:28 PM: Fixed it! F2 when the Puppy Linux logo screen appeared, and then typing "puppy pfix=1", made it skip the last saved session. I didn't have to delete the session - the session folder I skipped was automatically was marked bad by Puppy. All I had to do was save a new session, and the bad session folder was skipped on all subsequent restarts).
If I recall correctly, it sometimes takes a while for the Puppy Package Manager's window to refresh after installing packages. In general, it seems common for alert pop-ups to be able to prevent the windows of programs they belong with from refreshing or being useable. If a window seems stuck, it's good to look around for some alert pop-ups that need you to click on them.
After I downloaded the .pet file, all I had to do was click on it, and then click OK to install it. To open TrueCrypt, I had to go to the Utilities menu, then the General Utilities submenu.
There was only one other thing I had to do to make it work. When I first tried opening one of my encrypted file containers, I got the error "No such file or directory: dmsetup". After searching the web, I discovered that it's necessary to go to the Settings menu, select Preferences, go to the System Integration tab, and put a check in the checkbox labeled "Do not use kernel cryptographic services".
I was a bit dubious about that, because when I did that, an alert came up that said "Disabling the use of kernel cryptographic services can degrade performance. Are you sure?" However, no one seemed concerned by that in this forum thread: Truecrypt 6.3a and Truecrypt 4.3a So, I assume that's safe to do.
It's probably better to release stuff now in an imperfect form rather than months or years later in a perfected form, which I might never get around to doing at all. (I've doubtless been influenced by Steve Pavlina's recent excellent article Completion vs. Perfection.)
My hard drive often does that in Windows, and, the solution was the same as in Windows - all I had to do was make the hard drive get busy with something other than whatever it was doing. In Puppy, I did that by browsing to a folder on my hard drive that I hadn't visited before. In Windows, I usually just quickly saved whatever file I was working on.
I wasn't expecting that to happen at all while running Linux, so at first, I thought it was maybe just a new fan-related noise. It went on and on for about 4 minutes until I finally thought to browse some files on my hard drive, whereupon it immediately stopped. I probably should have recognized the sound since it sure happens often enough in Windows, but, I was just not expecting it.
I don't know if it's just something that my hard drive can't help but do every once in a while anytime it's on, or if it was the result of something in Linux trying to do something with my hard drive. But, I guess that's a good reason to go through with disconnecting my hard drive, once I become sure there's nothing else I need from it.
(Edit, 2/28/2011, 5:17 PM: I've been doing a lot of restarts to try out all these different Puppies, and, since my computer fan quiets down after my computer has been on for a while, the fan's sound wasn't covering up my hard drive noises at start-up anymore, which made it possible for me to observe that that soft buzzing noise can and does sometimes happen even before any operating system gets going. So, it's definitely not necessarily a result of the operating systems I'm using.)
I played with Puppy Linux on DVD+RWs pretty much all day yesterday and the day before. I first tried Puppy Crypt 4.3, then Puppy Studio 3.3, and Lucid Puppy 5.2.
Playing with Puppy Linux has been quite fun. In some ways, it has been a bit like I imagine going on a camping trip would be - having to do without the familiar comforts of home, but a fun adventure, and a test of your resourcefulness.
In some ways, it already is better. It's very fast. I'm actually mostly pretty happy with Windows XP's speed overall, but, with Windows XP, I was always annoyed with having to wait several seconds for the programs menu and submenus to load - and that's a problem Puppy lacks.
I've liked all of the Puppy Linuxes I've tried so far. However, I've been having a hard time figuring out how to install things like Java and XAMPP, so, I decided to go in search of some Puppy Linuxes which have those installed already (as well as some other things I want).
Another appealing thing about BrunoPup 2.0 and Newyearspup02rc7 is that they both have Wine, which, astonishingly, can run much Windows software surprisingly well. (Wine is also pre-installed in Puppy Studio 3.3 and was easy to install in Lucid Puppy 5.2. It probably would be easy to install in Puppy Crypt 4.3, but I didn't try to).
I also was astonished to find, while I was running Puppy Studio 3.3, that Wine was capable of running an AutoHotkey (AHK) script .exe I had.
While running all three of the Puppies I tried so far (Puppy Crypt 4.3, Puppy Studio 3.3, and Lucid Puppy 5.2), there were some glitches. I usually had to run the Alsa Sound Wizard twice to make sound work. In Puppy Crypt 4.3, the sound was crackly (maybe even after I did the sound wizard; can't remember).
When I tried to install XAMPP in Lucid Puppy 5.2, Puppy crashed so badly the screen suddenly simply went black. I guess it ran out of memory or something.
With some effort, I figured out how to install TrueCrypt in Lucid Puppy 5.2. (If I recall correctly, the following worked in Puppy Studio 3.3 too). TrueCrypt wasn't available in the Puppy Package Manager, but I found a downloadable Puppy package at the following page: http://www.puppylinux.org/wikka/Truecrypt
I should probably put useful tips like the above in some nice, organized web pages instead of burying them in the journal section of my blog, but, I'm not in the mood to make a really polished page or article yet. I feel comfortable putting drafty, hastily-written stuff in my journal, so, this seems like a decent place for the above for now.
The only really distressing thing that happened while running Puppy - which might not even be Puppy's fault - was, yesterday, while running Lucid Puppy 5.2 (and later, Puppy Studio 3.3), I noticed that my hard drive - which I still haven't disconnected - sometimes starts buzzing softly and continuously despite the fact that I'm not doing anything with it. I guess it might have done that the day before, too, but, I was taking it for granted that probably Puppy had no reason to access my hard drive without me telling it to, and I was wearing headphones a lot of the time - so if it did happen, I didn't notice.
OK, time for me to try out BrunoPup 2.0 and NYP (Newyearspup02rc7), special Eclipse edition for Java developers. Yay!!
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Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 03:26:34 GMT |
I'm currently rather worried about money, so, I'd like to point out (again) that, as always, donations of any size would be appreciated. Or you could request open source, public domain software by me or ask me programming questions.
I need to figure out how I can get Astroblahhh Desktop working - at least the link and idea organizers, if not the file organizer.
My original plan was to just install XAMPP, but, it's a really big package of software, and trying to install it in Lucid Puppy 5.2 made it crash abruptly, once.
I think I might have successfully installed XAMPP in Lucid Puppy 5.2 at one point, but, it was either after installing that (or trying again to install Java) that Lucid Puppy 5.2 ran out of RAM at start-up while trying to load my saved sessions.
In any case, I only have around 1 GB of RAM, so, a smaller substitute for XAMPP would probably be much better, even if I'm able to install XAMPP.
I ran across a web server package for Puppy that might be exactly what I need - LHMP. It includes the Hiawatha web server, PHP, and MySQL. The LHMP-7.3-5.1.47-5.3.3.pet file is only about 16 MB.
And, to my surprise, I successfully installed XAMPP in BrunoPup 2.0 just by following the instructions on the XAMPP for Linux page.
So, at least I know it's possible for XAMPP to work in Puppy. It's also nice to know that it's possible to have XAMPP and Java installed at the same time in a Puppy Linux.
I don't want to switch over to Newyearspup02rc7, though, because I ran into too many problems - the firewall software didn't seem to be working, the taskbar and menu kept disappearing with no way to get them back (at least I found), and I couldn't save sessions to my DVD+RW. I'm too much of a Linux newbie to figure out how to fix all that yet.
The only (and rather surprising) way I was able to get VUE to work was by going to the copy of VUE I installed in Windows, and opening VUE-launcher.exe. I guess probably Wine opened it. I didn't test it out for long, but it seemed to work fine.
It's impressively (and intimidatingly) barebones. I think I'm too much of a newbie to be able to do much with that yet. Also, I prefer using a newer version of Puppy Linux, so I'm probably just going to stick with Lucid Puppy 5.2 for now.
I wonder if I'll ever be knowledgeable enough to someday figure out how to use Woof to make my own custom Puppy Linux.
I'm really hoping to get back into something more like my normal routine as soon as I can, so, I've continued trying to figuring out how to tailor Puppy Linux to my needs.
I did manage to use XAMPP in NYP (Newyearspup02rc7), special Eclipse edition for Java developers. In that, XAMPP runs automatically at start-up, as you can tell just by visiting http://localhost in a web browser in Newyearspup02rc7.
In both Newyearspup02rc7 and BrunoPup 2.0, I managed to run the two Java programs I was interested in running - Freeplane and VUE. However, I had a hard time figuring out how to run VUE.
Today, I tried out another Puppy Linux - Turbopup Xtreme v1.0. That one interested me because of its tiny amount of RAM usage - about 10 MB.